Download Mar 2016 - Bays Mountain Park

Bays
Mountain
Astronomy
Club
Edited by Adam Thanz
March 2016
The Monthly Newsletter of the
More on
this image.
See FN1
Chapter 1
Looking Up
Brandon Stroupe - BMAC Chair
More on
this image.
See FN2
Brandon Stroupe
Looking Up
Hello BMACers,
March is now here and we are inching ever closer to spring.
Warmer weather should be coming soon, but unfortunately that
usually means rain as well. Of course, we really do not know
what Mother Nature has in store for us. The weather around here
has been crazy and you never know what we are going to get. I
More on
this image.
See FN3
wrap-up discussion will address the struggles still faced by
women in scientific fields on a daily basis and how we can
encourage and affect positive change. Sabrina will be our 2nd
speaker in our “Women in Astronomy” series. I hope everyone
will be able to attend this meeting and I believe it will be a very
informative and entertaining presentation.
personally would love temperatures of 70 degrees during the day
At our February meeting, we welcomed Dr. Beverly Smith from
and about 40 degrees at night. Oh yeah, and clear skies 300
ETSU. She is a professor in the Physics and Astronomy
days out of the year. Does anyone know where I could find that?
department at ETSU. Her presentation was titled, “Star
Needless to say, I am pretty picky about what kind of weather I
Formation in Interacting Galaxies.” She spoke about the different
like. I think we would all like to be out under the stars a little more
types of galaxies and star clusters and then about the formation
often. I know I would.
of stars. She also talked about the different ways to study star
Our meeting this month will feature Sabrina Hurlock. She is
currently a teacher in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and she is a
graduate of ETSU and she did graduate research work at the
University of Tennessee Space Institute. Her presentation will be
titled, “Women in Science: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Her talk will explore a range of topics from the history of women
in the fields of physics, astronomy, and engineering, to current
work being performed by leading local and global experts. A
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
formation regions and the software that is used to study and
analyze them. She also spoke about the two types of interacting
galaxies modeling that is used to verify the data. Dr. Smith’s
presentation came from her and her fellow colleagues’ own
research. Her presentation was pretty detailed and informative. I
hope all of you that attended really enjoyed the talk. After the
talk, we had a brief business meeting where we began
discussing the upcoming Astronomy Day. If you would like to
3
Cancer the Crab
image from Stellarium
layout by Adam Thanz
4
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
help out or have some suggestions about what you think the
OJ 287. It is an active galaxy with an active galactic nucleus
public would like to see and learn, please contact me or William
located 3.5 billion light years away and an apparent magnitude of
Troxel. William will be the planner and organizer for Astronomy
14.83. Its central supermassive black hole is among the largest
Day. We also mentioned the upcoming Mercury Transit on May
known, with a mass of 18 billion solar masses. That is more than
9th. It will be held at The Yards. They are located on ETSU
six times the value calculated for the previous largest object. I
grounds in Johnson City, TN. It will probably draw some pretty big
found that fact pretty interesting myself. Next time you are out
crowds so feel free to come out and help out and enjoy this
and the constellation is visible, take a look and remember all the
awesome event. The public viewing is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
things that are going on up there that we can’t even see.
BMACers wanting to help need to show up by 9 a.m. If you bring
a telescope, it MUST have a proper solar filter of at least neutral
density 5. If the weather is poor, the viewing is cancelled. For
more info, visit this web page: http://www.baysmountain.com/
astronomy/observatory/?GTTabs=2
That will be it for this month. I just wanted to remind everyone
that the StarWatches and the SunWatches start back this month.
The StarWatches will happen every Saturday night beginning at
dusk, if it is clear. If cloudy, the event is moved into the
planetarium. The SunWatches will happen every Saturday and
The constellation for this month is Cancer. It is translated to the
Sunday, from 3-3:30 p.m. at the dam if it is clear. We are always
Crab. Cancer plays a small role in the battle of Hercules and
happy to have volunteers from the club to help out. If you would
Hydra. While Hercules was busy fighting the multi-headed
like to help out, please arrive about 30 minutes early to help set
monster, Hera sent the Crab to distract him. Cancer grabbed onto
up the equipment. If you want to start earlier or stay later, that is
the toes of Hercules with its claws but he was not distracted.
OK as well, but you’d need to have your own equipment. It’s
Hercules crushed the crab with his foot. Hera, grateful for the
important that at least the “official” 30 minute time window is
brave but pitiful effort, gave it a place in the sky. Cancer is the
covered. I hope to see everyone at the meeting this month to
dimmest of the zodiacal constellations. It has only two stars
continue our “Women in Astronomy” series.
above 4th magnitude. A few of the notable objects in Cancer are
M67, an open cluster, and the pretty well known open cluster of
Until next month… Clear Skies.
M44. Most of us know M44 as the Beehive Cluster. M44 is one of
the nearest open clusters to our Solar System and it contains
about 50 stars. One more notable feature of this constellation is
5
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Chapter 2
BMAC
Notes
More on
this image.
See FN4
BMAC News
More on
this image.
See FN3
“BoBfest” 2016
meteorites and how to recognize them. He passed a few of his
by Greg Love, BMAC
meteorites through the audience for closer inspection.
Three Bays Mountain Astronomy Club (BMAC) members
Geomagnetism and the GWU Geomagnetic Observatory - Dr.
attended the Gardner-Webb University Astronomy Symposium
Don Olive, professor at Gardner-Webb University, introduced his
this year. They included Jocelyn Guillard, William Troxel, and
project to build and install sensitive magnetic sensors to monitor
myself, Greg Love. If you have attended this meeting and are
the Earth’s magnetic field. His plan would be to link with a world-
asking if this is a name change, yes it is. It is hosted by the
wide group of geomagnetic observatories
Cleveland County Astronomy club (www.ccastro.org). But we
(www.intermagnet.org ). He explained that the primary source of
usually refer to the meeting as BoBfest. The trek is about a 2.5
Earth’s magnetic field is the rotation of a solid core at the center
hour drive from Johnson City.
of Earth that is separated from the crust by a liquid layer. But,
The meeting includes speakers, raffle prizes, and swap shop.
There was also a meteorite exhibit with some of the meteorites
for sale. Cost is whatever you spend on raffle tickets and lunch,
there are other sources, such as ionized particles in the
atmosphere. This causes the map of Earth’s magnetic field to be
more complex than a simple bar magnet.
so essentially very low. They have quite a few prizes for those
So What Can You Do Without a Telescope? LOTS!!! - Joe
who purchase the raffle tickets. William and I did very well with
Heafner is a dynamic speaker. He is an AAPT Fellow at Catawba
the prizes.
Valley College in astronomy and physics. I was fooled by the title
Meteorites: Pieces of the Night Sky - James Lamm is a member
of the Charlotte Amateur Astronomers Club and collector of
meteorites. James explained in simple language the types of
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
of his talk and expected a talk on what can be seen in the night
sky. Instead, his talk encompassed personal scientific discovery
on questions about the rotation of the Earth, the circumference of
the Earth, your latitude, etc. His tool for these discoveries was a
7
"BoBfest" 2016 - photo by Greg Love
8
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Slide from meteorite talk - photo by Greg Love
9
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Jim Lamm - photo by Greg Love
10
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Image from Geomagnetism talk - photo by Greg Love
11
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Joe Heafner - photo by Greg Love
12
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Keeler talk - photo by Greg Love
13
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
“stick.” A simple stick that you can find in your home could be
used. Early scientific instruments were fancy sticks, such as the
astrolabe and armillary.
The Best Man: America’s Pioneering Astrophysicist, J.E. Keeler Tom English, professor of astronomy at Guilford Technical
Community College, gave an in-depth biography of American
astrophysicist James Edward Keeler. Among the positions held by
Keeler was Director of Allegheny Observatory. But, he lived in the
golden age of astronomy in America and observed at the Lick
Observatory. His discoveries included the Encke Gap in the rings
of Saturn and their rate of rotation. Indeed, some of his
discoveries involved spectroscopy and the Doppler shifts. Along
with George Hale, he founded the Astrophysical Journal.
ALERT!!! - “BoBfest” 2017 will be hosted by the Catawba Valley
Astronomy Club (http://www.catawbasky.org/) and will be held at
the Catawba Science Center in Hickory, NC.
14
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Astro Happenings
More on
this image.
See FN3
A few interesting events occurred last month. The “alignment” of
the visible planets with the culmination of the Moon, Mercury,
and Venus in a nice triangle low to the horizon was very nice.
Though, we had patchy clouds. I tried to get a good photo, but I
couldn’t get all three together in one image.
Astronaut Dr. Mae Jamison was in the Tri-Cities on Feb. 4, 2016
at the Eastman Toy F. Reid Employee Center. She was the first
African-American woman to fly in space on STS-47 which
launched on Sept. 12, 1997.
Her presentation was mostly about the importance of education,
the future of our society, and being part of a team when flying on
the Space Shuttle Endeavor.
I’m also including an image of Leo with the planet Jupiter taken
from my back deck on Feb. 11, 2016.
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
15
Dr. Mae Jemison
taking questions.
Photo by Adam
Thanz
16
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Leo with Jupiter.
Photo by Adam
Thanz
17
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Leo with Jupiter.
Lines have been
added to show
the constellation.
Photo by Adam
Thanz
18
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Chapter 3
Star Stuff
Te r r y A l f o r d
More on
this image.
See FN5
Terry Alford
Star Stuff
More on
this image.
See FN3
Even though the Sun is still heading towards solar minimum,
the morning of March 16, passes only 9’ from the lovely double
there are often opportunities to view sunspots and prominences
star Beta Scorpii.
through a properly filtered telescope. The days are getting
warmer (usually!) and after Daylight Saving Time starts on the
13th, you will have one more hour of sunshine after getting home
from work.
Jupiter is the “star” of the planet parade this month. It reaches
opposition on March 8, rising at dusk, and will shine brightly at
mag –2.5. The planet is easy to find under the body of Leo. The
disk is a generous 44” wide, so plenty of details should show
Mercury and Neptune are poorly placed for observation this
even in a moderately sized telescope. Believe it or not, there will
month. Uranus is placed far into the southwest as the Sun sinks
be eleven double shadow transits this month on Ol’ Jove. Three
and will disappear completely around mid-month.
will occur that will be visible from East Tennessee. On the night of
Venus rises in the east about an hour before sunrise. It reaches a
magnitude of –3.8 on March 5. By the end of the month it will go
behind the Sun and be invisible from our view until later in the
Spring.
Mars comes up around midnight. It’s magnitude dramatically
increases from +0.3 at the start of the month to –0.5 by month’s
end. It’s disk grows from 8.7” to 11.8”, wide so it should be a
little easier to eek out a few details on the Red Planet with a
quality telescope. It also moves out of Libra into Scorpius and on
March 14 from 10:22 to 12:34 a.m., on the night of March 21
from 12:23 to 2:31 a.m. the next morning, and the third transit is
on the morning of March 29 from 3:00 to 4:25 a.m. These transits
are always fun and interesting to view, even with a relatively small
scope. But, as usual, bigger is always better. Steady skies don’t
hurt either.
Saturn goes from a mag of +0.5 to a mag of +0.3 by month’s
end. It’s equatorial diameter is 17”. The rings are still tilted
favorably for observation at 26° and a pretty wide span of 38”.
Unfortunately, Saturn is pretty low on the ecliptic in Ophiuchus
so you will need a solid, steady night for good viewing. It will
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
20
begin retrograde motion on March 25. It will move westward and
rapidly towards Mars. By the end of the month they will only be 9°
apart, a pretty sight to be sure.
New Moon is on March 9 and Full Moon on March 23.
21
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Chapter 4
The
Queen
Speaks
Robin Byrne
Robin Byrne
Happy Birthday Ken Mattingly
More on
this image.
See FN3
This month, we celebrate the birthday of a man whose career
attend the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School to become
has spanned many areas, but who managed to, unintentionally,
a test pilot. However, NASA had other plans for his career.
avoid being part of a harrowing experience. Thomas Kenneth
Mattingly II was born March 17, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois. Known
as “Ken,” Mattingly’s family moved to Hialeah, Florida when he
was young. His early years were fairly typical, including joining
the Boy Scouts, and achieving the rank of Life Scout. In 1954,
Ken graduated from Miami Edison High School. From there, he
went to Auburn University where he received a Bachelor of
Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1958.
In April of 1966, Mattingly joined a new group of 18 other men
chosen to join the astronaut ranks. While waiting his turn to fly,
Mattingly acted as support crew for both the Apollo 8 and Apollo
11 missions. He also was part of the team that developed the
Apollo spacesuit and the EMU (the backpack worn during
spacewalks and used for maneuvering in a weightless
environment). Finally, he was assigned his own mission.
Originally, he and his fellow crew mates were to fly on Apollo 14,
After graduation, Mattingly joined the U. S. Navy as an ensign.
but due to Alan Shepard needing more training for his mission,
Two years later, he had his aviator wings. With that achievement
the two crews were swapped, and Mattingly found himself slated
came a new assignment - Attack Squadron 53 in Virginia, where
to fly on Apollo 13 with Jim Lovell and Fred Haise. Mattingly was
he flew the A-1H Skyraider aboard the USS Saratoga. Three
assigned to the Command Module Pilot position. However, three
years later, Mattingly transferred to Sanford, Florida, where he
days before launch, he was pulled from the crew after
was assigned to the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, flying the A-3B
discovering he had been exposed to the German measles from
Skywarrior. During his many years of active duty in the Navy,
Charlie Duke. Mattingly found out about the change while
Mattingly became quite proficient at landing a plane on an
listening to the radio, where he heard a special broadcast about
aircraft carrier. In 1966, he went to Edwards Air Force Base to
it. His first thought was, “If this is a practical joke, it’s really well
done, but I don’t think this is a joke.” He was replaced by Jack
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
23
The original
Apollo 13 prime
crew. From left
to right are:
Commander,
James A. Lovell,
Command
Module pilot,
Thomas K.
Mattingly and
Lunar Module
pilot, Fred W.
Haise. On the
table in front of
them are from
left to right, a
model of a
sextant, the
Apollo 13
insignia, and a
model of an
astrolabe. The
sextant and
astrolabe are two
ancient forms of
navigation.
Command
Module pilot
Thomas "Ken"
Mattingly was
exposed to
German measles
prior to his
mission and was
replaced by his
backup,
Command
Module pilot,
John L."Jack"
Swigert Jr.
24
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
The Apollo 16
prime crew
mission portrait.
The astronauts
are, from left to
right, Thomas K.
Mattingly II,
command module
pilot, John W.
Young,
commander, and
Charles M. Duke
Jr., lunar module
pilot.
25
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Swigert. Even though he never contracted the measles, the last
the Orbital Flight Test Program. Starting in December 1979,
minute swap saved Mattingly from being a part of the emergency
Mattingly was head of the astronaut office ascent/entry group.
that struck the Apollo 13 mission. However, the change allowed
Finally, in 1981, the first Shuttle launched. Mattingly served as
him to help address some of the issues faced by the crew in
back-up commander for both STS-2 and STS-3. He was then
space, especially the power availability. Mattingly also knew that
named Commander for the STS-4 mission, which was the last
Jack Swigert was better suited to handle that particular
test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Flying with him was
emergency, because Mattingly can’t handle the cold. “I have a
Henry Hartsfield in the Pilot seat. Launching June 27, 1982, their
personal thermostat that’s set right around 70 degrees,” Mattingly
seven days in space were used to evaluate the launch and entry
said. “When my body gets below 60 degrees, it doesn’t function.
performance of the space craft, the long-term thermal effects on
If I had been stuck up there, I would have absolutely been a
the orbiter, plus some scientific experiments. They landed at
disaster.”
Edwards Air Force Base on July 4, 1982. (A landing that I was
Because of the swap with Swigert, Mattingly was now poised to
SUPPOSED to see, but that’s another story.)
fly as the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 16 mission from
From June 1983 through May 1984, Mattingly served as Head of
April 16 - 27, 1972. Flying with him were John Young and Charlie
the Astronaut Office Department of Defense (DOD) Support
Duke. While Young and Duke worked on the lunar surface,
Group. This may have played a role in his next assignment. On
Mattingly remained in orbit aboard Casper. His job was to perform
January 24, 1985, Mattingly was again the Commander of a
observations of the moon’s equator, obtaining photographs and
shuttle mission, this time STS-51-C, which was the first DOD
geochemical maps of the region. After leaving lunar orbit and
mission. The Space Shuttle Discovery landed on January 27,
while heading back to Earth, Mattingly performed an EVA
1985. This was Mattingly’s last flight, garnering him a total of 504
(Extravehicular Activity) to retrieve film and data packages from
hours in space, including 73 minutes of EVA.
the science bay located on the side of the service module.
After resigning from NASA in 1985, Mattingly was Chief of
After his stint with the Apollo program, Mattingly moved on to the
NAVSPACECOM for one year. He then retired from the Navy with
Space Shuttle program. From 1973 to 1978, he worked as the
the rank of Rear Admiral. From the Navy, Mattingly moved on to
head of the astronaut office for the program. He then briefly
become the Director of Utilization and Operations at the
worked as a technical assistant for flight test to the Manager of
Grumman Space Station Office. Later, he moved to Lockheed
26
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
S72-35901 (25 April
1972) --- Astronaut
Thomas K. (Ken)
Mattingly II, command
module pilot of the
Apollo 16 lunar landing
mission, floats in space
outside the spacecraft
during his trans-Earth
extravehicular activity
(EVA), as seen in this
reproduction taken
from a color television
transmission made by a
color TV camera
mounted on the
Command Module
(CM) hatch. Mattingly
used hand-holds and a
foot restraint to hold
himself in position, and
he was secured to the
spacecraft by an
umbilical tether line.
During his EVA,
Mattingly made an
inspection of the
Service Module's (SM)
Scientific Instrument
Module (SIM) bay, and
retrieved film cassettes
from the Panoramic
Camera and the
Mapping Camera. The
trans-Earth EVA
occurred at ground
elapsed time of 242:55,
and 2:49 p.m. (CST),
Tuesday, April 25, 1972
27
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. STS-4 thunders away from
Launch Pad 39A at 10:59:59
a.m. EDT, bound for a sevenday Earth orbital mission and
the final developmental flight
for the Space Transportation
System. The fourth Space
Shuttle mission is piloted by
Commander Ken Mattingly
and Pilot Henry Hartsfield Jr.
Photo Credit: NASA
28
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
S82-33420 (4 July
1982) --- The aft
wheels of the
Space Shuttle
Columbia ease
down on the
runway at
Edwards Air
Force Base (AFB)
to successfully
complete a weeklong spaceflight
for Astronauts
Thomas K.
Mattingly, II, and
Henry W.
Hartsfield, Jr. A
T-38 aircraft
serves as a chase
plane (just above
center of photo)
in the
background. Not
long after this
photograph was
made and the
crew had
egressed their
craft, President
Ronald Reagan
addressed a giant
crowd on hand at
Edwards AFB for
a special kind of
July 4 celebration.
29
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Martin to be the Director of the X-33 Program, which was a
proposed space plane that never reached fruition. After Lockheed
Martin, Mattingly went to General Dynamics to head the Atlas
References
Ken Matting - Wikipedia
booster program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Mattingly
Whether flying in air or space, Ken Mattingly managed to live a
Astronaut Bio: Thomas K. Mattingly
charmed life while achieving goals most of us can only dream
about. As NASA begins recruiting for the next round of astronauts
Ken Matting: Apollo 16 Astronaut by Elizabeth Howell April 16,
to fly the Orion spacecraft, we can live vicariously through these
2013
individuals, who get to experience what only a select few ever will
achieve. Ken Mattingly’s legacy lives on in all of them.
http://www.space.com/20689-ken-mattingly-astronautbiography.html
International Space Hall of Fame:: New Mexico Museum of Space
History
http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=80
30
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Chapter 5
Space Place
More on
this image.
See FN6
Dr. Ethan Siegel
The Closest New Stars to Earth
When you think about the new stars forming in the Milky Way,
you probably think of the giant star-forming regions like the Orion
Nebula, containing thousands of new stars with light so bright it’s
visible to the naked eye. At over 400 parsecs (1,300 light years)
distant, it’s one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky,
and the vast majority of the light from galaxies originates from
nebulae like this one. But its great luminosity and relative
proximity makes it easy to overlook the fact that there are a slew
of much closer star-forming regions than the Orion Nebula;
they’re just much, much fainter.
If you get a collapsing molecular cloud many hundreds of
thousands (or more) times the mass of our sun, you’ll get a
nebula like Orion. But if your cloud is only a few thousand times
the sun’s mass, it’s going to be much fainter. In most instances,
the clumps of matter within will grow slowly, the neutral matter
will block more light than it reflects or emits, and only a tiny
fraction of the stars that form—the most massive, brightest ones
—will be visible at all. Between just 400 and 500 light years away
are the closest such regions to Earth: the molecular clouds in the
constellations of Chamaeleon and Corona Australis. Along with
the Lupus molecular clouds (about 600 light years distant), these
dark, light-blocking patches are virtually unknown to most sky
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
More on
this image.
See FN3
watchers in the northern hemisphere, as they’re all southern
hemisphere objects.
In visible light, these clouds appear predominantly as dark
patches, obscuring and reddening the light of background stars.
In the infrared, though, the gas glows brilliantly as it forms new
stars inside. Combined near-infrared and visible light
observations, such as those taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope, can reveal the structure of the clouds as well as the
young stars inside. In the Chameleon cloud, for example, there
are between 200 and 300 new stars, including over 100 X-ray
sources (between the Chamaeleon I and II clouds), approximately
50 T-Tauri stars and just a couple of massive, B-class stars.
There’s a third dark, molecular cloud (Chamaeleon III) that has
not yet formed any stars at all.
While the majority of new stars form in large molecular clouds,
the closest new stars form in much smaller, more abundant ones.
As we reach out to the most distant quasars and galaxies in the
Universe, remember that there are still star-forming mysteries to
be solved right here in our own backyard.
This article is provided by NASA Space Place.
32
More on
this image.
See FN8
33
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
With articles, activities, crafts, games, and lesson plans, NASA
Space Place encourages everyone to get excited about science
and technology.
Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov to explore space and Earth science!
34
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Chapter 6
BMAC
Calendar
and more
More on
this image.
See FN7
BMAC Calendar and more
Date
Time
Location
More on
this image.
See FN3
Notes
BMAC Meetings
Friday, March 4, 2016
7 p.m.
Program: Sabrina Hurlock; “Women in Science: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Ms. Hurlock is an educator in Murfreesboro, TN. Her talk will explore a range of topics from the history of women
Nature Center
in the fields of physics, astronomy, and engineering, to current work being performed by leading local and global
Discovery Theater
experts. A wrap-up discussion will address the struggles still faced by women in scientific fields on a daily basis
and how we can encourage and affect positive change.; Free.
Friday, April 1, 2016
7 p.m.
Nature Center
Discovery Theater
Program: Robin Byrne from Northeast State Community College. Topic TBA. Part of our 3-part series on
“Women in Astronomy.” Free.
Friday, May 6, 2016
7 p.m.
Nature Center
Discovery Theater
Program: TBA; Free.
3-3:30 p.m.
if clear
At the dam
View the Sun safely with a white-light view if clear.; Free.
Observatory
View the night sky with large telescopes. If poor weather, an alternate live tour of the night sky will be held in the
planetarium theater.; Free.
SunWatch
Every Saturday & Sunday
March - October
StarWatch
Saturday, March 5, 12, 2016
7:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 19, 26, 2016
8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30,
8:30 p.m.
2016
Special Events
Monday, May 9, 2016
10 a.m 3 p.m.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
1-4:30 p.m.
8:30-10
p.m.
Mercury Transit - Come help with this public viewing program. Please show up by 9 a.m. to set up. BMACers
ETSU CPA Front or
will need to bring a scope with proper solar filtration, plenty of water, a hat, a chair, and lunch. See the website
Side Yard
for more details. http://www.baysmountain.com/astronomy/observatory/?GTTabs=2
Nature Center
Observatory
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Annual Astronomy Day - Displays et al. on the walkway leading to the Nature Center, 1-4:30 p.m.; Solar viewing
3-4 p.m. at the dam; Night viewing 8:30-10 p.m. at the observatory.
36
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club
853 Bays Mountain Park Road
Kingsport, TN 37650
1 (423) 229-9447
www.baysmountain.com
Regular Contributors:
Brandon Stroupe
Brandon is the current chair of the club. He
is a photographer for their business,
Broader Horizons Photography and an avid
astrophotographer. He has been a member
since 2007.
[email protected]
Terry Alford
Annual Dues:
Dues are supplemented by the Bays Mountain Park
Association and volunteerism by the club. As such, our
dues can be kept at a very low cost.
$16 /person/year
$6 /additional family member
Note: if you are a Park Association member (which incurs
an additional fee), then a 50% reduction in BMAC dues
are applied.
The club’s website can be found here:
www.baysmountain.com/astronomy/astronomy-club/
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
Terry is a founding member since 1980 and
has been chair many times. He has worked
as an astronomy lab instructor at ETSU
since 2001.
Robin Byrne
Robin has been writing the science history
column since 1992 and was chair in 1997.
She is an Associate Professor of
Astronomy & Physics at Northeast State
Community College (NSCC).
Adam Thanz
Adam has been the Editor for all but a
number of months since 1992. He is the
Planetarium Director at Bays Mountain
Park as well as an astronomy adjunct for
NSCC.
37
Section 3
Footnotes
Footnotes:
1. The Rite of Spring
Of the countless equinoxes Saturn has seen since the birth of the solar system, this one, captured
here in a mosaic of light and dark, is the first witnessed up close by an emissary from Earth …
none other than our faithful robotic explorer, Cassini.
Seen from our planet, the view of Saturn’s rings during equinox is extremely foreshortened and
limited. But in orbit around Saturn, Cassini had no such problems. From 20 degrees above the
ring plane, Cassini’s wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing
Saturn, its rings, and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the
sun’s disk was exactly overhead at the planet’s equator.
The novel illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun’s angle to the ring
plane, significantly darkens the rings, and causes out-of-plane structures to look anomalously
bright and to cast shadows across the rings. These scenes are possible only during the few
months before and after Saturn’s equinox which occurs only once in about 15 Earth years. Before
and after equinox, Cassini’s cameras have spotted not only the predictable shadows of some of
Saturn’s moons (see PIA11657), but also the shadows of newly revealed vertical structures in the
rings themselves (see PIA11665).
Also at equinox, the shadows of the planet’s expansive rings are compressed into a single, narrow
band cast onto the planet as seen in this mosaic. (For an earlier view of the rings’ wide shadows
draped high on the northern hemisphere, see PIA09793.)
The images comprising the mosaic, taken over about eight hours, were extensively processed
before being joined together. First, each was re-projected into the same viewing geometry and
then digitally processed to make the image “joints” seamless and to remove lens flares, radially
extended bright artifacts resulting from light being scattered within the camera optics.
At this time so close to equinox, illumination of the rings by sunlight reflected off the planet vastly
dominates any meager sunlight falling on the rings. Hence, the half of the rings on the left
illuminated by planetshine is, before processing, much brighter than the half of the rings on the
right. On the right, it is only the vertically extended parts of the rings that catch any substantial
sunlight.
With no enhancement, the rings would be essentially invisible in this mosaic. To improve their
visibility, the dark (right) half of the rings has been brightened relative to the brighter (left) half by a
factor of three, and then the whole ring system has been brightened by a factor of 20 relative to
the planet. So the dark half of the rings is 60 times brighter, and the bright half 20 times brighter,
than they would have appeared if the entire system, planet included, could have been captured in
a single image.
The moon Janus (179 kilometers, 111 miles across) is on the lower left of this image. Epimetheus
(113 kilometers, 70 miles across) appears near the middle bottom. Pandora (81 kilometers, 50
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
More on
this image.
See FN3
miles across) orbits outside the rings on the right of the image. The small moon Atlas (30
kilometers, 19 miles across) orbits inside the thin F ring on the right of the image. The
brightnesses of all the moons, relative to the planet, have been enhanced between 30 and 60
times to make them more easily visible. Other bright specks are background stars. Spokes -ghostly radial markings on the B ring -- are visible on the right of the image.
This view looks toward the northern side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ring plane.
The images were taken on Aug. 12, 2009, beginning about 1.25 days after exact equinox, using
the red, green and blue spectral filters of the wide angle camera and were combined to create this
natural color view. The images were obtained at a distance of approximately 847,000 kilometers
(526,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 74 degrees.
Image scale is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed
and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in
Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The
Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
2. Duke on the Craters Edge
Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., Lunar Module pilot of the Apollo 16 mission, is photographed
collecting lunar samples at Station no. 1 during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity at the
Descartes landing site. This picture, looking eastward, was taken by Astronaut John W. Young,
commander. Duke is standing at the rim of Plum crater, which is 40 meters in diameter and 10
meters deep. The parked Lunar Roving Vehicle can be seen in the left background.
Image AS16-114-18423
Creator/Photographer: NASA John W. Young
3. The Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the first planetary nebulae discovered, also has one of the most
complex forms known to this kind of nebula. Eleven rings, or shells, of gas make up the Cat's Eye.
Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain) and Z. Tsvetanov (NASA)
4. Jupiter & Ganymede
38
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peeka-boo." In this crisp Hubble image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant
planet.
Ganymede completes an orbit around Jupiter every seven days. Because Ganymede's orbit is
tilted nearly edge-on to Earth, it routinely can be seen passing in front of and disappearing behind
its giant host, only to reemerge later.
Composed of rock and ice, Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system. It is even larger
than the planet Mercury. But Ganymede looks like a dirty snowball next to Jupiter, the largest
planet in our solar system. Jupiter is so big that only part of its Southern Hemisphere can be seen
in this image.
Hubble's view is so sharp that astronomers can see features on Ganymede's surface, most
notably the white impact crater, Tros, and its system of rays, bright streaks of material blasted from
the crater. Tros and its ray system are roughly the width of Arizona.
The image also shows Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the large eye-shaped feature at upper left. A
storm the size of two Earths, the Great Red Spot has been raging for more than 300 years.
Hubble's sharp view of the gas giant planet also reveals the texture of the clouds in the Jovian
atmosphere as well as various other storms and vortices.
Astronomers use these images to study Jupiter's upper atmosphere. As Ganymede passes behind
the giant planet, it reflects sunlight, which then passes through Jupiter's atmosphere. Imprinted on
that light is information about the gas giant's atmosphere, which yields clues about the properties
of Jupiter's high-altitude haze above the cloud tops.
This color image was made from three images taken on April 9, 2007, with the Wide Field Planetary
Camera 2 in red, green, and blue filters. The image shows Jupiter and Ganymede in close to
natural colors.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)
5. 47 Tucanae
In the first attempt to systematically search for "extrasolar" planets far beyond our local stellar
neighborhood, astronomers probed the heart of a distant globular star cluster and were surprised
to come up with a score of "zero".
To the fascination and puzzlement of planet-searching astronomers, the results offer a sobering
counterpoint to the flurry of planet discoveries announced over the previous months.
"This could be the first tantalizing evidence that conditions for planet formation and evolution may
be fundamentally different elsewhere in the galaxy," says Mario Livio of the Space Telescope
Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, MD.
The bold and innovative observation pushed NASA Hubble Space Telescope's capabilities to its
limits, simultaneously scanning for small changes in the light from 35,000 stars in the globular star
cluster 47 Tucanae, located 15,000 light-years (4 kiloparsecs) away in the southern constellation
Tucana.
Hubble researchers caution that the finding must be tempered by the fact that some astronomers
always considered the ancient globular cluster an unlikely abode for planets for a variety of
reasons. Specifically, the cluster has a deficiency of heavier elements that may be needed for
building planets. If this is the case, then planets may have formed later in the universe's evolution,
when stars were richer in heavier elements. Correspondingly, life as we know it may have appeared
later rather than sooner in the universe.
Another caveat is that Hubble searched for a specific type of planet called a "hot Jupiter," which is
considered an oddball among some planet experts. The results do not rule out the possibility that
47 Tucanae could contain normal solar systems like ours, which Hubble could not have detected.
39
But even if that's the case, the "null" result implies there is still something fundamentally different
between the way planets are made in our own neighborhood and how they are made in the cluster.
Hubble couldn't directly view the planets, but instead employed a powerful search technique
where the telescope measures the slight dimming of a star due to the passage of a planet in front
of it, an event called a transit. The planet would have to be a bit larger than Jupiter to block
enough light — about one percent — to be measurable by Hubble; Earth-like planets are too small.
However, an outside observer would have to watch our Sun for as long as 12 years before ever
having a chance of seeing Jupiter briefly transit the Sun's face. The Hubble observation was
capable of only catching those planetary transits that happen every few days. This would happen if
the planet were in an orbit less than 1/20 Earth's distance from the Sun, placing it even closer to
the star than the scorched planet Mercury — hence the name "hot Jupiter."
Why expect to find such a weird planet in the first place?
Based on radial-velocity surveys from ground-based telescopes, which measure the slight wobble
in a star due to the small tug of an unseen companion, astronomers have found nine hot Jupiters
in our local stellar neighborhood. Statistically this means one percent of all stars should have such
planets. It's estimated that the orbits of 10 percent of these planets are tilted edge-on to Earth and
so transit the face of their star.
In 1999, the first observation of a transiting planet was made by ground-based telescopes. The
planet, with a 3.5-day period, had previously been detected by radial-velocity surveys, but this was
a unique, independent confirmation. In a separate program to study a planet in these revealing
circumstances, Ron Gilliland (STScI) and lead investigator Tim Brown (National Center for
Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO) demonstrated Hubble's exquisite ability to do precise
photometry — the measurement of brightness and brightness changes in a star's light — by also
looking at the planet. The Hubble data were so good they could look for evidence of rings or Earthsized moons, if they existed.
But to discover new planets by transits, Gilliland had to crowd a lot of stars into Hubble's narrow
field of view. The ideal target was the magnificent southern globular star cluster 47 Tucanae, one of
the closest clusters to Earth. Within a single Hubble picture Gilliland could observe 35,000 stars at
once. Like making a time-lapse movie, he had to take sequential snapshots of the cluster, looking
for a telltale dimming of a star and recording any light curve that would be the true signature of a
planet.
Based on statistics from a sampling of planets in our local stellar neighborhood, Gilliland and his
co-investigators reasoned that 1 out of 1,000 stars in the globular cluster should have planets that
transit once every few days. They predicted that Hubble should discover 17 hot Jupiter-class
planets.
To catch a planet in a several-day orbit, Gilliland had Hubble's "eagle eye" trained on the cluster
for eight consecutive days. The result was the most data-intensive observation ever done by
Hubble. STScI archived over 1,300 exposures during the observation. Gilliland and Brown sifted
through the results and came up with 100 variable stars, some of them eclipsing binaries where the
companion is a star and not a planet. But none of them had the characteristic light curve that
would be the signature of an extrasolar planet.
There are a variety of reasons the globular cluster environment may inhibit planet formation. 47
Tucanae is old and so is deficient in the heavier elements, which were formed later in the universe
through the nucleosynthesis of heavier elements in the cores of first-generation stars. Planet
surveys show that within 100 light-years of the Sun, heavy-element-rich stars are far more likely to
harbor a hot Jupiter than heavy-element-poor stars. However, this is a chicken and egg puzzle
because some theoreticians say that the heavy-element composition of a star may be enhanced
after if it makes Jupiter-like planets and then swallows them as the planet orbit spirals into the star.
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016
The stars are so tightly compacted in the core of the cluster – being separated by 1/100th the
distance between our Sun and the next nearest star — that gravitational tidal effects may strip
nascent planets from their parent stars. Also, the high stellar density could disturb the subsequent
migration of the planet inward, which parks the hot Jupiters close to the star.
Another possibility is that a torrent of ultraviolet light from the earliest and biggest stars, which
formed in the cluster billions of years ago may have boiled away fragile embryonic dust disks out
of which planets would have formed.
These results will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in December. Follow-up
observations are needed to determine whether it is the initial conditions associated with planet
birth or subsequent influences on evolution in this heavy-element-poor, crowded environment that
led to an absence of planets.
Credits for Hubble image: NASA and Ron Gilliland (Space Telescope Science Institute)
6. Space Place is a fantastic source of scientific educational materials for children of all ages. Visit
them at:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov
7. NGC 3982
Though the universe is chock full of spiral-shaped galaxies, no two look exactly the same. This
face-on spiral galaxy, called NGC 3982, is striking for its rich tapestry of star birth, along with its
winding arms. The arms are lined with pink star-forming regions of glowing hydrogen, newborn
blue star clusters, and obscuring dust lanes that provide the raw material for future generations of
stars. The bright nucleus is home to an older population of stars, which grow ever more densely
packed toward the center.
NGC 3982 is located about 68 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy
spans about 30,000 light-years, one-third of the size of our Milky Way galaxy. This color image is
composed of exposures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
(WFPC2), the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The
observations were taken between March 2000 and August 2009. The rich color range comes from
the fact that the galaxy was photographed invisible and near-infrared light. Also used was a filter
that isolates hydrogen emission that emanates from bright star-forming regions dotting the spiral
arms.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: A. Riess (STScI)
8. Image credit: NASA and ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Acknowledgements: Kevin Luhman
(Pennsylvania State University), and Judy Schmidt, of the Chamaeleon cloud and a newly-forming
star within it—HH 909A—emitting narrow streams of gas from its poles.
40
Bays Mountain Astronomy Club Newsletter March 2016